About Me

I am a lifelong student of military history with particular interest in the Battle of Antietam. I work for the federal government in Washington DC and have two young adult children who I love very much. I currently volunteer at Antietam and devote much time to the study of this battle and the Maryland Campaign. I enjoy collecting notable contemporary quotations by and about the men of Antietam. Since 2013 I have been conducting in depth research on the regular artillery companies of the Union Army and their leaders. I hope to turn this into a book on this subject in the future. My perspective comes from a 28-year career in the U.S. Army. Travels took me to World War II battlefields in Europe and the Pacific where American valor ended the tyranny of Nazism and Empire. But our country faced its own greatest challenge 80 years earlier during the Civil War. And it was the critical late summer of 1862, when Robert E. Lee launched the Maryland Campaign. It is an incredible story of drama, carnage, bravery, and missed opportunities that culminated around the fields and woodlots of peaceful Sharpsburg MD. So join me as I make this journey South from the North Woods.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

West Pointers in the Maryland Campaign

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Joseph K. F. Mansfield USMA 1822

West Pointers in the Maryland Campaign

Charles Warner USMA 1862

As
the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day
in American history approaches, I have turned my attention to a small group of
men who fought there.These are
the graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point.From Joseph K.F. Mansfield in the Class
of 1822 to Charles Warner, the “Goat” of the Class of 1862, all told 197
graduates served in some capacity in the Maryland Campaign and most fought at
Antietam.In assembling this list,
I extensively used George W. Cullum's Biographical Register of the
Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West
Point, New York.Cullem assigned a number to each
graduate.The register contains a
short biographical summary of each officer’s service in the United States
Army.Cullem provides no
information on Confederate service merely stating that individual “Joined in the Rebellion of 1861‑66 against the
United States.”

While some officers connection may be
tenuous at best, if Cullem stated that a man participated in the Maryland
Campaign, or fought at Antietam, he made my list.I decided to also include John Reynolds though he was
detached from the Army of the Potomac to command the Pennsylvania Emergency
Militia.Also listed are John
Pelham and Thomas Rosser. These southern cadets left the academy immediately
after Fort Sumter, just shy of their formal graduation date.Mere attendance for some period of time
does not qualify an individual for this list.Examples in this category are Lowell Armistead, kicked out
of the Academy for breaking a plate over the head of fellow cadet Jubal Early
and Dunbar Ransom who left West Point to attend Norwich when his father assumed
the position of superintendant there.

There were 199 men (including
Pelham and Rosser) who wore the cadet gray that now fought, and in some
cases, died in this most decisive of battles.

Just thirty-three
(counting Pelham and Rosser) would serve with the Confederate Army.The vast majority, 166, remained loyal
to the nation that trained them and turned them into soldiers.

Most of the generals
are well known.From Joseph
Mansfield of the Class of 1862 to Fitzhugh Lee of the Class of 1856, sixty-four
men wore a general’s star.Fifty-six
were field grade officers (colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors) commanding
brigades, regiments or senior staff positions.The rest, 77 in all, were company-grade officers (captains
or lieutenants.) In that group are fifteen graduates of the West Point Class of
1862.These men graduated on June
17, 1862 and most were immediately sent to join McClellan’s Army on the
Peninsula.Mere boys in many
cases, by the Maryland Campaign they were already hardened veterans having
fought in some cases both on the Peninsula and at Second Bull Run prior to the
Maryland Campaign.Amazingly, of
the graduates of that last class, a number of these men would still be on duty
leading brigades and divisions in the Spanish American War.

Eighteen others were
killed on other battlefields or from the ravages of the war.They range from the might Stonewall who
fell at Chancellorsville to young Albert Murray, Class of 1862, who died a
prisoner of war in Macon Georgia.

The casual reader
will likely not recognize many of these men.Names like Francis N. Clarke, Frederic Myers, Charles
Sawtelle, and Charles N. Warner don’t immediately come to mind.But whether leading an army, or an
ordnance train, each and every one contributed to the success of his army on
that bloody day.And as the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of that bloody
day is about to begin, look at the names, contemplate the service, and mourn
the lives lost.

Officers are listed
within their graduating classes in order of class rank.